Thursday, March 1, 2012

The Bruins can finally turn the calendar to the month of March. After a 5-7-1 record in the month of February with being shutout five times, it was time to get back on the right track heading down the stretch.

Boston was in action at the TD Garden Thursday night against the New Jersey Devils. Greg Zanon made his debut with the B's in this game after coming over in a trade with the Minnesota Wild on Monday afternoon.

This was the final meeting between the two teams with Boston winning the previous three meetings. This could also be a potential playoff match-up in the second round. The Devils were 5-5-0 in their last 10 games coming into Thursday, which is obviously mediocre hockey. Does that not scream opportunity for the Bruins?

Bruins' Head Coach Claude Julien shook up the lines for this one. Patrice Bergeron centered Brian Rolston and Brad Marchand while David Krejci centered Milan Lucic and Tyler Seguin. Chris Kelly was back down with Benoit Pouliot and Jordan Caron. The fourth line remained in tact.

Whatever took place behind closed doors between Tuesday's loss and prior to puck drop in this one is unknown. Who cares? It worked because we finally saw Bruins' hockey the way it is supposed to be played.

Krejci and Seguin each had a goal in the first 20 minutes. The new-look top line recorded a combined seven points alone. Even Tim Thomas picked up an assist on Seguin's goal. If it was not for Devils' goaltender Martin Brodeur the score would have been inflated to five or six.

Shawn Thornton left the game in the first period to repair an injury he sustained in a fight with Eric Boulton. He returned to action minutes later. That bout was Thornton's 17th fighting major of the season.

Absolute deja vu in the second period for the Bruins. After a couple of costly mistakes by Joe Corvo, which by now is not really a shocking thing to hear, the Devils came back and scored three unanswered goals. Zach Parise, Patrik Elias, and David Clarkson recorded the tallies for New Jersey. The first two may have come from turnovers, but Thomas allowed a softie on the third one. He should have stopped a squeaker like that.

The defense of the Bruins settled down in the third period and held New Jersey to eight shots. Krejci knotted his second goal of the game on assists from Lucic and Zdeno Chara. The game ended up going into overtime and it was there when Krejci capped off the hat-trick by netting the winning goal. Bruins win by a score of 4-3.

The Bruins will wrap up this three-game homestand on Saturday afternoon when they take on the New York Islanders.

Gold Star: David Krejci (3 goals, plus-2 rating, 5 shots on goal)...Hopefully this offensive outburst will stick around for a while.

Black Star: Joe Corvo...We do not want to see him getting booed every time he touches the puck. The sooner Johnny Boychuk returns, the better it will be for the Bruins.